ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 69 



tropical ants, are, as lias already been mentioned, a special 

 class distinct from their comrades, of whom more will be 

 said later, never play a commanding role, but only one of 

 service to the community. McCook (ante. Nov. 1877, p. 178) 

 establishes that each ant develops a complete personal inde- 

 pendence, and that there can be no talk of overseers, of 

 leaders, nor of rulers. May we not naturally ask why so 

 extended a self -government, which is enough for these little 

 Republicans, is not also possible for man ? And why should 

 we take it for granted that in a perfectly free community 

 men would only work if compelled, when these animals give 

 proof that such a free commonwealth is very possible, and is 

 compatible with the voluntary work of all ? 



As to the so-called queens, it has been already said that 

 they do not exercise the smallest authority, and only so far 

 deserve their name in that, as a rule, they take no part in 

 the ordinary work, and that, omitting their duty of egg- 

 laying, they yield themselves up to a dolce far niente, a soft 

 idleness, to a frivolous and careless life of pleasure. They 

 also resemble human queens in allowing themselves to be 

 fed by their gwasz-subjects, but they are very favorably 

 distinguished from their human antetypes, so that under 

 exceptional circumstances, when there is need, they set to 

 work and are not ashamed to perform the same tasks as 

 their subjects. This is especially the case where there is a 

 lack of workers' hands. Lespes gives a most striking 

 example of this kind. He watched a small species of ant 

 in Southern France, which gathered in very small colonies, 

 generally consisting of only about sixty members, and among 

 these not less than twenty were queens. Here the latter 

 shared the work. Such an arrangement seems very foolish, 

 and does not say much for the famous " design " in natural order. 

 But the misarrangement is again compensated for, since 

 the queens, as we have said, willingly resign their privilege 

 of idleness, and, forgetting their queenly dignity, share the 

 work of their subjects. Has anything like this ever been 

 heard among men ? Even among these are found political 

 abnormalities reminding us of the misarrangement among 

 the ants. Let us think of the negro princelings in Africa, 

 or of the constitution of our former German Empire, in which 

 some hundreds of sovereign or independent princes, counts, 

 bishops, archbishops, etc., ruled a few millions of subjects. 



